


Battles Won, Battles Lost

by ArwenKenobi



Series: Watson's Woes July Writing Prompts 2013 [22]
Category: Sherlock (TV), Sherlock Holmes & Related Fandoms
Genre: Gen, Reichenbach AU
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-07-23
Updated: 2013-07-23
Packaged: 2017-12-21 02:20:22
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,132
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/894659
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ArwenKenobi/pseuds/ArwenKenobi
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Sherlock really must never wonder what John does in his spare time.  Then again if he had a handful of hours to plan his own death then John supposes he can forgive him for being distracted</p>
            </blockquote>





	Battles Won, Battles Lost

_First Witch: When shall we three meet again?_  
In thunder, lightning, or in rain  
Second Witch: When the hurlyburly's done,  
When the battle's lost and won.  
(Macbeth, I,i,1-4)  


_14 June 2012_

He really should have caught on earlier, John decides as he shuts the window of their flat behind him. Quietly as not to wake the neighbours. He should have seen it right away in Moriarty as Richard Brook's pleas to Sherlock. _Tell him!_ He'd screamed. Yes it was Richard Brook begging Sherlock to own up for all of his supposed staged crime scenes. But at the same time it was Moriarty telling Sherlock to tell John that it was all true. That this lie was truth and to have him buy it. John was probably the last person, or one of the last, who still believed in Sherlock wholeheartedly. Who didn't have at least a shadow of doubt as to Sherlock or his abilities. Telling him and having him believe it would be the end of him. Moriarty would have won right there. 

It was also, the more he thinks about it, John's way out. Moriarty would have let him go out of it if Sherlock had told him what he wanted. Sherlock had said nothing. Since John refuses to believe that Sherlock actually wants to see him killed he has to plan for the fact that he's going to be followed or assassinated. Or an attempt is going to be made to coerce Sherlock to sing the tune he's been told to. 

No wait, John thinks again as he remembers the assassins in this very building. A building he should probably consider vacating. He thinks about grabbing his gun but then stops himself. If Moriarty's plan hinged on holding up John that was hardly a plan. It's not like he's strapped to a bomb and at anyone's mercy here. If he were that would not make Moriarty's case at all which means not just him. There has to be some other people that Sherlock gives a damn about who won't be as good in a fight as he would be. 

Mrs. Hudson. For certain Mrs. Hudson. Maybe even Lestrade. Shit. He thinks about warning her but then finds that he can't. Who knows what is going on her and who knows if the flat is still being watched. It certainly is. It has to be. 

Anyway they'll go for him first, John has to allow. If anyone is getting shot right away and in front of Sherlock it is going to be him. He'd shown his hand at the pool and Moriarty was not soon to forget it. 

John stops on his way back out the window. Moriarty wants Sherlock to fall. To be torn down in the press and be nothing. But how long will that be expected to last? How long will be expect Sherlock to keep quiet?

Because he'll be dead, John realises with a sick feeling in his stomach. We're going for epic fall from grace here. The hero is brought down and the hero ends his own life.

The sick feeling lasts maybe for five seconds before John remembers exactly who and what Sherlock is. 

There's a plan and if John knows him the way that he thinks he does. Knows that hand at the pool as well as he thinks he does. He knows what he's going to do. Hell, it's what he would do if he had the brain to pull such a mad stunt off. 

First things first though, he heads for the Diogenes Club. He does have a character to maintain and he does need to be sure that there is a way to be sure that Mrs. Hudson at least is okay. He trusts Greg enough to have his wits about him. 

=====================================================================================

Sherlock really must never wonder what John does in his spare time. Then again if he had a handful of hours to plan his own death then John supposes he can forgive him for being distracted. John does his due diligence with Mycroft though. He yells at him over telling Sherlock's life story. Quite frankly John hadn't been sure whether Mycroft was in on this as well but the last bit about telling him to tell Sherlock that he's sorry has to mean something. Or maybe he knows more than either of them. 

Sherlock's phone buzzes with a message that he come over to St. Bart's and John about rolls his eyes. Of course. He's been plotting with Molly. If he wasn't going to ask John then he'd ask Molly. It really is rather twisted at how offended he feels that his best friend didn't ask him to help him fake his own death. When he gets there he lets Sherlock talk about the computer code and about revealing Richard Brook once and for all. John nods and leaves Sherlock to his thoughts. Or at least he appears to. 

John has made an art out of observing Sherlock when he thinks he's not looking. At first it had been for self preservation considering how little Sherlock often told him when on cases but then it had become for curiosity. The man had been changing over the last year and a half. He cared and whenever he knew he'd upset John or John had done something amazing (if he did say so himself) he'd react when John wasn't watching. 

John does sleep some of the night with his head pillowed in his arms but he gets a good look at Sherlock as he mopes and sulks and hesitates and wonders. He's got his plan, it's in motion, but he's not sure about it. Even now he has his doubts. John really just wants to raises his head up and just snap at him but he knows that now is not the moment. He texts Stamford to take a walk by Baker Street before he goes to work and let him know how it looks. If it looks good he's to knock up Mrs. Hudson and tell her where they are. As much as it irks him to have to involve another party he knows he isn't going anyway. 

_15 June 2012_

John wakes up to his mobile ringing. Sherlock is sitting on the floor of the lab playing with a ball of all things when he realises that this is the moment. The moment where he is going to be called away so Sherlock can 'die' outside of John's presence. He doesn't trust John to lie but he also doesn't want John to watch. It's got to be public and convincing after all. 

He answers the phone. A badly masked voice - John almost calls Molly out on it right away - informs him that Mrs. Hudson has been shot. Sherlock shows no reaction, which is just pathetic. Pathetic in that he can act so well and pathetic in that he expects John to dismiss the fact that he'd once thrown a man out of a window several times for daring to touch her. He hangs up and does what he's meant to do, which is cause a scene and leave Sherlock on his own. He does it quite well he thinks. A bit too well. He is still angry at him for not telling him about what he's going to do. 

On his way out of the lab he bumps into Molly. He pulls her into a supply cupboard and she doesn't resist. Conflicted? Obvious. 

"He hasn't told me but I know," he tells her. "Where are you meeting after?"

Molly blinks. "You're not meant to watch."

"I'm going to end up watching," he tells her. "It'll be better if I see it. That I can confirm it."

Molly agrees. "I told him that might be better but he didn't want you to see. Not because he doesn't trust you but because he doesn't want you to see that."

John shrugs. "It'll only be for a few minutes. I'll let them keep me away, I'll let whatever you've got lined up to get him taken to the morgue, whatever. Just bring me in all the way whenever you get a chance to. Both of you."

"That may not be right away."

"A week," John says as an ultimatum. "That's what he's got. Tell him this from me: Norbury" 

Molly looks even more flustered and confused. John says to trust him and reminds her that they have a week. He leaves her in the cupboard and rushes out of the building and over to Baker Street. He gets the text from Stamford saying that all is well. Mrs. Hudson of course is confused to see him but eager to hear if all is sorted with the police. John, for the benefit of the armed person who is watching him somewhere, acts horrified and rushes back to the cab. 

It's amazing how little he needs to act later, as Sherlock stands up on the roof and finally spins him that lie. It's amazing how easy it is to forget that this is all a trick, even when Sherlock hints it to him as best as he's able that it's all an illusion. A part of John marks that he's told where to stand and where to look but he does not deviate from where he's told to. Sherlock is doing this in public for a reason and John is watching this for a reason. Is choosing to watch this for a reason. If he sees it happen this what will do it. What will leave Sherlock free to do the rest. Notably John assumes to get these assassins taken care of and whatever else is left of Moriarty's network. 

He does the act well, he thinks. His grief and panic certainly feels real and the sight of Sherlock falling and hitting the ground will certainly live in his nightmares for years to come. A touch of fury at that, that Sherlock would do this to him at all. Who knew for how long too. John starts running and is promptly smacked into by a passing cyclist. Bastard, he thinks as he gets up. Bloody bastard thought of everything. 

The next bit. With Sherlock's body and the reaction that isn't faked at all. As fake as he knows it has to be, feeling Sherlock's pulse and feeling nothing wipes all of that knowledge out of him. ===================================================================================== 

_20 June 2013_

The week is a fiasco. The papers are full of it all. John thinks it's perfectly in character to burn whatever he does find in the fireplace. There's packing up of things, dealing with Mycroft, dealing with the will (John is the sole beneficiary), and of course the funeral, and trying to get through the next few days hoping that his demand is honoured. 

Norbury, what he'd told Molly to tell Sherlock, was in reference to a case in Norbury where Sherlock had been overconfident in his abilities. He'd told John to whisper it in his ear whenever he got like that to remind him. It's perhaps not quite the best code to use but nothing else fits and he's sure that Sherlock understands the message. 

On his way to lunch his mobile buzzes with a text message. The number is blocked but the text says Amateur Mendicant. John knows enough from that. 

When he arrives at the warehouse where he and Sherlock had broken that case he finds Molly waiting for him. "Were you followed?"

John shakes his head. "Doubt it. He's dead, remember? No reason to keep tabs on little old me anymore."

"Don't take it that way, John." Comes a voice from the shadows. "It had be this way."

John shrugs. "Right, okay. Leave me out of the loop while you pretend to be dead. That's a whole different world of Not Good, Sherlock."

"I know, I'm sorry."

John nearly falls over at hearing those rare words. "Well, now that I know I can help. I think I've doing pretty well."

"You need to stay here, John." 

John sighs. "I know. I just...I just wanted you to know that I'm better than you think. And I wanted to be sure that I was right."

"I won't make the same mistake again." 

"You'd best not," John promises. "I may still hit you when I see you again. When will that be by any chance?" 

"When the hurlyburly's done--"

"When the battle's lost and won," John finishes with a grin. "Battle looks lost for now. Get on with winning it then, yeah?"

"As fast as I can," Sherlock promises. Then John hears footsteps leaving and then Molly's hand on his shoulder. He grasps it tightly and sends up a prayer to whomever watches over mad detectives and their foolish friends. 

**Author's Note:**

> Prompt 22: The Bard: We can't have a challenge without a little Shakespeare. Use a quote, a reference, or the man himself - it's all up to you.
> 
> Quote that inspired me is up above, obviously :)


End file.
